IBM has announced its first quantum computer containing more than 1000 qubits – equivalent to the bits in a classical computer. However, the company states that it will change direction now and focus on developing smaller chips with a new approach to “error correction”.
Quantum Computing Technology and Challenges
Quantum computers promise to perform certain operations that exceed the capabilities of traditional computers. This is achieved by exploiting unique quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition, which allow many qubits to exist in multiple collective states simultaneously.
However, these quantum states are known to be extremely volatile and prone to errors. Physicists have attempted to overcome this by stimulating several physical qubits – each encoded in a superconducting circuit or a single ion – to work together to represent one piece of information, or a “logical qubit”.
Quantum Error Correction Technology
As part of its new plan, the company also unveiled a chip called Heron containing 133 qubits, but with a very low error rate, three times lower than previous quantum chips.
Generally, researchers have stated that modern error correction techniques will require more than 1000 physical qubits for each logical qubit. Therefore, a machine capable of performing useful operations will need millions of physical qubits.
Nevertheless, physicists have become excited in recent months about an alternative error correction technology called “quantum low-density parity-check” (qLDPC). This technique promises to reduce that number by a factor of 10 or more, according to a preprint by researchers at IBM. The company states that it will now focus on building chips designed to contain a small number of qubits corrected by the qLDPC technique in about 400 physical qubits and then linking those chips together.
Challenges in Implementing Quantum Error Correction Technology
However, the qLDPC technology requires each qubit to be directly linked to at least six others. In typical quantum chips, each qubit is only linked to two or three neighbors. However, Oliver Dial, a condensed matter physicist and IBM Quantum’s Chief Technology Officer at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, states that the company has a plan: it will add a layer to its quantum chip designs to allow the additional communications required by the qLDPC system.
IBM’s Approach to Research in Quantum Computing
IBM’s new research roadmap in quantum computing suggests that it will achieve useful operations – such as simulating catalytic processes – by the end of the current decade. Dial states, “It has always been a dream, and it has been a distant dream. But to get to a point where we can see the path from where we are today is, for me, a huge deal.”
References
1. Bravyi, S. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.07915 (2023).
2. Xu, Q. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.08648 (2023).
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03854-1
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